Sunday, 18 March 2018

Bring out the Bunting!

Just finished work, stripped out of my bonfire-smelling hoodie and stopped in my tracks as I looked out of the window...holy crap, look at that

Whoo-hoo!!!
My first ever Skye Reed Bunting! They aren't exactly rare up here, just rather scarce and localised. I still remember finding my very first Reed Bunting (a male on top of a reed at Frensham Great Pond Surrey, 1986 - I was 14) and this is the second most excited I've ever been at seeing one! This is the 99th species of bird I've seen in my square, and 111th for Skye as a whole. Happy days indeed. 


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7 comments:

  1. Pete Forrest18 March 2018 at 19:11

    It's great how birders can so often vividly remember their first sightings of so many species. (not saying though ,that Reed Bunting is one I can definitely remember!)
    Anyway bring on the 100th for the square, good going.

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  2. Gibster18 March 2018 at 19:16

    Yes, it's a weird (geeky?) ability if ever there was, huh?

    Who knows what no.100 will be. Corncrake? A tern? Puffin (found a dead one last year)? Osprey? Whinchat? Ring Ouzel? Something bonkers (Rosefinch? Crane? Coot?)

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  3. Ali19 March 2018 at 11:28

    I've had one pushed off the adjacent farmland by the Beast. Lovely birds. I knew Frensham rang a bell so I blew the dust off my UK bird list spreadsheet. In the days of yore I used to travel south regularly for meetings and I would check birdtrack. Frensham - Great Reed Warbler. Croak, screech, croak, croak, croak, screech :) I propose 100 will be a Phalarope

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    Replies
    1. Gibster19 March 2018 at 16:48

      I saw that bird. My mate (a keen Surrey lister at the time) was in Yorkshire. I left him a voicemail message on his mobile - with the GR Wobbler absolutely belting it out in the background. He hated me for ages after that :D

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  4. Ali19 March 2018 at 11:33

    also my first UK Redstart and only UK Dartford Warbler it seems. What a nice place that was. It feels like I'm back there now thinking about it. May 29th 2002

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  5. Ali19 March 2018 at 11:44

    also this year's Golden Plover was my 140th species for Dalgety Bay

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  6. Gibster19 March 2018 at 16:52

    Reed Bunting still present today, the Skye recorder was distinctly nonplussed, "they are well distributed just north of you Kilmuir/Kilmaluag etc." Arses, when do I ever get up to Kilmuir FFS. It's still the first one I've ever seen up here, and that's what's important :D

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